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9 Worst Cross-Dressing, Transgender Villains

January 28, 2014

Since Cautionary Women believes in equality, this site's coverage of villainesses also extends to transwomen and male characters who happen to be in ladies' clothing. Sashay through some of the most villainous, anti-heroic transsexuals and transvestites in fiction:

Sailor Moon has not been one to cower from depicting LGBT characters, to think this animated series first ran in the homophobic, transphobic 1990s. Japanese animé has a long history of celebrating androgyny but Fish Eye was an iconoclast.

Media portrayals have a crucial role in shifting the tide of public favor toward the LGBT community. But as you may have read, some of the most visible villains in fiction are characters whose genders, and their attendant roles, are in transit, a fact that GLAAD has bemoaned. You should not wonder then why transwomen and transvestites get a bad rep not only in heterosexual society, but also in a patriarchal gay male community.

In life as in art, crimes offer a level playing field for all sexes and sexual orientations. But the number of accurate and positive roles for transsexual and transvestite characters is disproportionate enough to facilitate hate in everyday life. That kid who grew up on Powerpuff Girls? He or she may not be far away from thinking a bearded man in girly clothes is the Devil herself.